Posts tagged 2018 No Bans No Walls Delegation
When You Look at Her, See Every Palestinian

We were there, in the Tamimi back yard, with this family I'm going to tell you about, just one day after the IDF (IOF - occupation, not defense) raided their family home and shot up the very space we inhabited. While this is a dizzying context for me, they have to live this every day. All Palestinians do.

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Eye-to-Eye. . . Hill-to-Hill - Tent of Nations, Bethlehem

Israel wants this hilltop.  It is one of the highest around.  The government and the nearby Settlers have been trying to take it for decades.  But the Nassar family has lived here and worked its land for 3 generations.  And they have original land deeds dating back far beyond their arrival. This is their land.

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The Notorious Khalil Checkpoint

We approached the checkpoint at 1 pm in the afternoon after an afternoon of learning about apartheid policies and dictates in Khalil (Hebron). We saw the marketplaces that had been shuttered due to settlement expansion because the Israeli settlers above wanted to build a basketball court.

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Apartheid, Up Close and Personal

Went through another checkpoint today. We pulled up to it, and they had the routine initial questions: Them: “Who is with you?” Us: “Americans.” Them: “We’re going to check.” So they boarded the bus. Machine guns, attitude, and settler colonial privilege.

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Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, Middle East, Earth

Deheisheh Refugee Camp was established the same year I was born. 1949.   I could be one of its resident grandmas. It was a maze of stone.  Narrow pathways and so many homes huddled together.  There were also some allowances for cars to pass — not roads exactly, but they suited a need.  

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Uprooted

For my bar-mitzvah, one hundred trees were planted in Israel in my name. Trees dot the landscape on the first part of the drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv-Yafo. Forests and clumps of trees are clearly visible from the highway. If you look closer, you can see some stone walls and foundations among the trees.

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